Welcome back to the world!

If you made it this far then I salute you. It’s getting more difficult and a little scarier every single week, it seems. Still, at least Coldplay can make us feel nice and we ain’t dropping our pints for no dum-dum terrorists.

I’m dedicating this week to two of my favourite cities — London & Manchester.

Stay strong.

In other news:

THE HERNIA

Buh-beep. Buh-beep. Buh-beep.

That’s the sound of the doctor pressing his ultrasound scanner against my pelvis. He jammed that thing so hard it looked like he was trying to scan some warped barcode on a dinged up tin of beans.

“Is it a boy or a girl?” I asked.

He didn’t reply. He’d either heard it too many times or didn’t hear me at all. Oh well.

So after the big run last week I finally got myself booked in for a scan of my supposed hernia. This is the year of trying to get myself back to some sort of working health levels and this damn hernia is on the list of stuff to sort out. I feel like a rusty old beat up car in someone’s garage.

“He won’t pass the MOT in this state. Not at all. Lots to do. Lots to do.”

Once this is sorted, it's back out and running. Can't wait.

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THE IT READ-ALONG

Right now I’m joining a bunch of readers over on Instagram who are reading Stephen King’s It (all 1300 pages). I started on the 1st and just clocked 270 pages and I have to say, it’s a flipping great book already.

Stephen King writes like nobody else. He really takes his time to let his characters develop but it never feels like he’s stalling. It all adds to the tension. It all adds to the feeling of, “I really don’t want these characters to get hurt”.

I can already tell this is going to be one of those game-changing books for me, and I'm so glad I decided to experience it through the book first, instead of the film which is just around the corner.

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H&C BUSINESS

We’ve been in business at H&C for about 18 months now and we’re finally making money. Nothing major and definitely not enough to pay anyone, but it’s paying for itself now and that's something. I don’t have to shell out so much of my own money to keep the wolves from the door.

So with that said, we’re now looking for ways to push things up a notch. We’re talking better book delivery for our free books, better Mailing List automation, a fresh coat of paint on the website, and whatever else we can think of to really try to push the business to the next level.

Speaking of...

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THE PUBLISHING SCHEDULE

This could be interesting to you guys. It might not. But it could be.

We've put together a publishing schedule for my books and comics:

2017 Publishing Schedule

They Remain 27th June

El Marvo #1 1st July

Lazarus 1st August

[REDACTED] 1 5th September

[REDACTED] 2 3rd October

[REDACTED] 3 31st October

They Ruin Nov/Dec

So for the next six-months this is pretty much going to be my full-time gig — putting words on pages, editing, launching, repeating. And this doesn’t include my short story work and any other extra-curricular activities.

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BATTLEPLAN

So this week it's all about getting through my final edit of They Remain and putting some notes down for Book 4 (the end of the series?). I'll also be finishing the website and signing off on the El Marvo artwork.

READING - It by Stephen King

WATCHING - Dracula (1931)

DRINKING - Coffee & Water & Apple/Ginger Juice

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THAT’S ALL FOLKS

Let's get through this, shall we? Another week without death and destruction, please and thank-oo-very-much.